EMC
EMC, +0.00%
based in Hopkinton, Mass., reported net income of $270 million, or 11 cents a share, on revenue of $2.24 billion. During the same period a year ago, EMC earned $140 million, or 6 cents a share, on $1.87 billion in revenue.

The company's results matched the average estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call.

Investors lauded EMC's results, sending the company's shares up $1.52 or more than 13%, to close at $12.99.

Chief Executive Joe Tucci said in a conference call to discuss the results, that after a slow February, business picked up in March, especially in the U.S. He also said EMC's strategy of broadening its product portfolio through a series of acquisitions is showing positive results.

Among the software companies EMC has recently acquired have been Documentum, Legato Systems and VMWare.

Software license sales and services rose 26% to $832 million and made up 37% of EMC's total revenue in the quarter. Systems revenue climbed 15% to $1.03 billion, or 46% of total revenue, with strong sales of EMC's Clariion, Celera and Centera storage platforms.

Looking ahead, Chief Financial Officer Bill Teuber said EMC expects to report a second-quarter profit of 12 cents a share on revenue of $2.33 billion to $2.355 billion, basically in line with analysts' expectations.

Teuber said EMC expects to end the year with operating profit margins in the "high teens," and earn 50 cents to 51 cents a share. Wall Street has been forecasting income of 51 cents a share.

Merrill Lynch storage analyst Shebly Seyrafi said the results "are encouraging and should support the stock." In a research note, Seyrafi cited EMC's growing its Clariion and VMWare product lines as particular areas of strength.

In March, the industry research firm IDC said that EMC maintained its lead in the data-storage business with a market share of 30.9%. The firm predicted that storage sales would also grow strongly in 2005.

The storage market has been a hotbed of merger and partnership activity of late. One of EMC's top rivals, Veritas Software
VRTS, +0.04%
recently agreed to be acquired by Symantec Corp.
SYMC, +0.32%

Last week, IBM Corp.
IBM, -0.77%
said it would resell certain storage products from Network Appliance
NTAP, +0.79%
in an attempt to challenge EMC in the mid-range storage sector.

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